Treading Water
by thecivilunrest
Summary: "Maybe not everything here was so awful after all." Walt/Zia


**Disclaimer: **We don't own _The Kane Chronicles. _If we did then there would be some serious changes.

**A/N: **This was written with **iscreamdrizzle**, because she knows how much I truly hate Zarter. Yeah. So if you like something, it was probably her. :D Anyway, please review, this was **iscreamdrizzle**'s first collab, and because reviews are always nice.

**_Treading Water_**

The hallway was silent as Zia crept along, the tips of her fingers touching the edges of the walls. She'd only been at the Brooklyn Housea couple of days and she still wasn't all that familiar with sleeping under this roof. It made her jump at times. The cursing and footfalls of roaming children at night, in search of a midnight snack, did nothing but spook her. Every _smack_ against a rouge piece of furniture was an enemy attack.

Zia couldn't understand how anyone could sleep in this too-big mansion with its yawning hallways and creaking walls. The sounds of children had always bothered her, but the sounds here were amplified. The first nome in Egypt had been quieter, and she wished that she was there instead of here.

But who was _she_ to have such hypocritical thoughts when she was just another rat in the Kane mansion? Since sleep evaded her, it seemed a waste to take up a bed. Though this house could fit her entire village, based on the pictures Iskandar had shared with her.

Arriving at her destination, one of the many balconies, and allowing the warm, muggy air to flood her pores Zia felt like she could finally breathe. There were no stars in Brooklyn like there were back home, but being outside was enough, even if she was still connected to the place that she so despised.

And despise it she did. If Zia was being honest with herself, which had been happening more and more lately now that she had almost figured out who she was, she just didn't _like _it here. She didn't like how Carter looked at her like he was waiting for her to realize something, she didn't like how the other children looked at her like it was a relic, a foreign entity that walked into their mist.

Zia did like Sadie, but even that she was uncomfortable with because of the blonde girl's connection to the god of death. She still wasn't sold on the whole gods-as-hosts thing. The gods were selfish beings who had used humans for their own ends in the past. Who said a few thousand years of isolation had changed anything?

And falling in love with a god was just stupid.

Not that Sadie would ever admit it. She had too much pride, and that was something Zia admired. But the younger Kane made it too easy. The way her eyes widened in adoration, and her entire being lit up as if glowing from within whenever she so much as caught a whiff of death now.

It was disturbing, and Zia didn't like it.

Being alone and outdoors was the only thing that made her happy now. Gripping the metal wrought iron that protected humans from falling off the balcony Zia sighed as she looked at the Manhattan skyline and listened to the wail of sirens as they made their way across the city.

A voice that seemed to come from Nut herself made Zia whirl around. "Oh crap, sorry. I didn't realize that anyone else was going to be out here."

It was Walt.

Walt. The charmmaker who had an even bigger connection to Anubis than her almost-friend Sadie, and who she had the biggest reason to be wary of. Zia didn't worship the gods, but his family had been cursed for a reason.

The gods had decreed the family heretics, but did that mean they should all be doomed? Unsure, she backed up against the rail. It was cold and jammed into her back. Iskandar had been all about second chances...

Zia herself shouldn't be here. Unwillingly or not, she had hosted a goddess.

"No, it's no problem." There was more than enough room out here for two. She could simply ignore him. He wasn't like Carter, who would try- and fail- to talk to her, or even like Amos who acted ridiculously grateful when she managed to convince everyone that he wasn't going to bring an end to the world.

The gods where more than capable of doing that themselves.

"Cool." He smiled and his teeth gleamed like the moon, reflecting light from the streetlights that were just a few feet from them. Despite her determination to completely ignore his existence, she couldn't help but smile back. Walt wasn't demanding like the others.

He held no expectations for Zia and it was kind of nice.

Carter wanted to hold her accountable for her shabti's actions. Sadie looked to her for advice when there was no one else to spot her floundering. All the other magicians in this house treated her with a strange sort of awe tinged with fear. Probably because she was the first member of the House of Life to come under this roof without her wand blazing.

"Why are you up?" She regretted to words as soon as they fell from her mouth, but justified it moments later when his warm voice answered. Zia was doing nothing more than satisfying her curiosity.

The last time she had seen Walt he'd been in a makeshift hospital bed, eerily still after overtaxing himself against enemy magicians. A wave of guilt washed over her. Some of those _enemies_ had raised her.

"Can't sleep. I guess the gods do have a sense of humor. Whenever the sun goes out, so do I. I get jittery. Like I need my next fix. I'm addicted to sunlight. Pretty lame huh?" he rumbled.

"Yes, kind of. But at least you have an excuse. I'm sorry, though, about that." Why did these words keep slipping out? She swore she wouldn't say a word to him, but instead Zia found herself sympathising with him and wanted to talk with someone who'd also had their life ruined by the gods.

No one else here seemed to get it. They just thought the gods were some poor misunderstood souls. The underdog in a fight against humans that just wanted to wipe them out.

How naive.

"Eh, it comes with the territory of being cursed. You get used to it after a while. I've been like this since I was twelve. That's when I really started using magic, and so things got worse."

This was strangely easy. Zia found herself relaxing, inching closer to the boy who had come over to the railing without her noticing.

"Why do you fight for the gods if they did that to you?" It was a question that had been plaguing her ever since she'd arrived at this damned house, and Zia knew Walt would be brutally honest. He had no reason to hold back.

That seemed to take Walt aback before he bit his lower lip and thought for a bit before answering, "Because, I have faith in them. I think that they can do good things for the world. They're just like people, with more power. It corrupts them, but they can still be good. It's the same for humans. How would _you _feel if the animals started trying to control us?" He smiled then, trying to lighten the mood.

Zia didn't exactly see that as funny, though. "If they could do a better job with the world than we should let them. The gods didn't appreciate what they had when we gave it to them. What makes you think that they should get another chance?" she plunged on ruthlessly. "They gave their power away and now they want it back. But it wasn't something that could be returned."

She certainly hadn't planned to be debating the foolishness of the gods with an attractive boy- that Sadie_ liked, _heavy emphasis on the last word- when she'd crept out of bed. She had just wanted to pretend that she could see the stars as easily as she could on a clear desert night.

But some things just _happened_, or so she was learning.

"Agree to disagree?" Walt asked with a grin. "There's no way that we're ever going to agree on this and the night is almost ending. See?" He gestured to the skyline. There seemed to be a slight change in the color of the sky, the way that one might see a change in white versus off white, but other than that Zia saw nothing. She brushed the thought off as something to do with his curse and his affinity with the sun.

Zia just stared, but her expression softened as she saw his grin. "Good-night, Walt." There might have been a touch of fondness in her tone, but she would fiercely deny it if asked.

"Good-night, Zia. It was nice talking to you."

Zia nodded as they both walked to the door that entered the Kane mansion and back to their reality. They did an awkward little dance before Walt let her walk back inside.

Maybe not everything here was so awful after all.


End file.
